Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?Review

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Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes decide who will wield the shield.

By Dan Phillips

Let's forgo any outraged rants about how Marvel has handled the resurrection of Steve Rogers and just state the facts regarding this Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? special. This issue, which answers the titular question about who will act as Captain America for the immediate future, has been released a month before the conclusion to the series purporting to bring Rogers back from the dead, weeks after a number of series have already shown him walking around the Marvel Universe both in and out of costume. Whether or not those things bother you on a fundamental level will likely determine how much you'll be able to enjoy this issue - there's really no getting around that.

The good news, even for those of you who can't quite get past how thoroughly Captain America: Reborn has been mishandled, is that this one-shot shows much of the same flair and nuance that's made so much of Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America so enjoyable. Brubaker again shows a great handle on Steve Rogers' voice and personality, even providing another flashback that works both on its own and as a window into Rogers' current predicament. Bucky again proves why he's been so fascinating to observe as Steve's uncertain replacement. The art, by Butch Guice and Luke Ross, is significantly more polished and impressive than the work of Bryan Hitch on Reborn, and even shows flashes of both Steve Epting and Jack Kirby.

More importantly – and perhaps most surprisingly – the issue does work to a certain extent as its own story. Once you accept and get over the idea that the circumstances of Steve's return are spoiled in the issue's recap page (if you indeed can), it is somewhat possible to accept this plot on its own terms. Haunted by his recent journey through his own past, Steve hits the town in costume to blow off steam. At the same time, Bucky decides to join Black Widow on one last romp as Captain America before handing the costume back to his mentor. The two cross paths when battling an escaped D-list villain, and in doing so, arrive at a surprising arrangement for who will wield the shield moving forward. The fact that the issue does indeed answer its titular question so definitively and logically is a big positive. Coupled with the level of craft shown by Brubaker and his artistic collaborators, that's almost enough to wash the bad taste of Reborn and Marvel's recent scheduling snafus out of one's mouth.

Sadly, the reality of the situation is that the biggest development in both the story of Steve Rogers' return and the state of the Captain America franchise moving forward occurs in a comic that has yet to be published, and is apologetically revealed in the issue's opening recap and a late-issue monologue by Rogers. That's tough to swallow no matter how exciting the development might be and no matter how well Brubaker navigates these unfortunate circumstances. I'm just glad Steve's back and free to walk around the Marvel Universe without spoiling any more stories, and hope his future adventures can someday make us forget how sloppily he was brought back into the fold.